Nvidia introduces GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost graphics card

Nvidia isn't giving the competition much breathing room these days. The GPU giant announced the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost, just a few days after AMD released its own mid-level gaming graphics card, the Radeon HD 7790. The GTX 650 Ti Boost is a significant upgrade to last year's GTX 650 Ti, boosting performance by as much as 40 per cent.

Based on Nvidia's Kepler architecture, the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost is available with either 1GB or 2GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory, with UK pricing set for £124 and £144, respectively, according to our friends at Hardware.info.

The new card boasts 782 CUDA cores, four SMX units, a base clock speed of 980MHz, and 140W TDP. Compared to the previous GTX 650 Ti, the new GPU features up to 60 per cent more memory bandwidth, with a wider 192-bit memory interface.

The card is designed for gaming in what Nvidia calls the "sweet spot" of 1080p resolution with high-quality detail settings. Comparisons provided by Nvidia show significantly improved frame rates over the previous GTX 650 Ti — 45 fps in Planetside 2 (up from 33 fps) and 62 fps in StarCraft II (up from 39 fps) at 1080p with high settings and FXAA or 4xAA.

With Nvidia's Boost technology, the GPU clock speed adjusts dynamically, allowing for a boosted clock speed up to 11 per cent higher, adjusting as needed to ensure top performance while gaming, even as the demands of the game shift during play. Support for two-way SLI technology also allows the addition of a second card, effectively doubling the overall performance.

The GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost that Nvidia is showing of is only a reference model and UK release information has yet to be confirmed, though speculation points to early-April.